Live Below Your Means

by Glenn J. Downing, MBA, CFP®

At CameronDowning we work with a lot of young professionals.  These are people who are well-educated, hard-working, and striving for good things in life.  They come to us for financial organization – to get their life’s financial underpinnings squared away – to establish a foundation upon which to build.

Deferred Gratification

If I have one piece of advice to this group it is this:  live below your means.  And this is difficult to do.  Not just because we live in an expensive city, but because of deferred gratification.  People who complete bachelor’s and graduate degrees have deferred gratification for years – forgoing current earnings to pursue a professional education that is expected to pay a good income for years to come.  But at some point everyone gets tired of the deferred in deferred gratification, and just wants the gratification! 

Live below your means

The temptation for anyone new at a profession is to go out and lease an expensive car and get a nice apartment.  Great.  But all too often people in this group vastly underestimate the cost of living and end up living on the edge.  Hence my advice:  live below your means.  Don’t spend all you make, but instead save a chunk.  That’s how wealth is built. 

Here's the bad news

So here’s the bad news:  unless you are uber wealthy, there is always going to be deferred gratification.  Generally we have everything we need, and much of what we want, and that’s about as good as it gets.  And that’s not a bad thing – it gives us all something to continue to strive toward. 

Questions?  Thoughts?

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